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Public Media for Central Pennsylvania

Your Learning Neighborhood

Working with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the seven PBS stations across Pennsylvania joined together to create Your Learning Neighborhood, your connection to thousands of hours of education and entertaining videos, activities, lessons, and games to support you. You can find out more at pennsylvaniapbs.org, in addition to our resources below.

Teachers, parents and caregivers: please explore! We are in this #TogetherPennsylvania.

 

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Watch and Play

PBS Kids Activies Calendar

PBS KIDS Activities Calendar

Classroom Activities

Series Activities

2024 Multicultural Children’s Festival

Bring your family to the WPSU and State College Area School District Multicultural Children’s Festival and discover the world and diverse cultures through art, music, and hands-on crafts for kids of all ages. Get a taste of local flavors made by food trucks and vendors from a wide variety of cultures.

Saturday, April 6, from 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

Solar Eclipse Glasses for Schools

WPSU Education is offering PreK-12 classrooms a set of solar eclipse glasses to use during the solar eclipse on April 8th! We have a limited number to giveaway and we will close the opportunity once our maximum number has been reached.

Reserve your FREE glasses by Friday, March 29

Family Night: Amazing Adventure

Bring the family out for a night of fun activities as we go on an Amazing Adventure with our favorite PBS KIDS Work It Out Wombats! Families with children ages 3-6 are encouraged to attend, siblings younger and older are welcome to attend. Dinner will be provided with family-friendly food.

Thursday, April 11, from 5:30 p.m.–7:00 p.m.

WPSU Education

illustration of master and apprentice

Career Readiness

In partnership with PA Department of Labor and Industry, WPSU has curated free content for parents, students, and educators that align to state career readiness standards. Here are top resources to help parents, students, and educators explore various careers.

2021 Humphrey Fellows with Lion Shrine

Explore the World with Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows

WPSU is delighted to have collaborated with the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows Office at Penn State to create a video series presented by the 2021 Humphrey Fellows. These educational videos, suited for classroom and community viewing, feature each fellow talking about their home country, its culture, history, and people.

Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings

“Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings” follows 13 young people in a genetics and genealogy camp as they explore their family history and DNA ancestry with techniques never before used in an educational setting.

Mapping the Pandemic

Geospatial Revolution

The Geospatial Revolution Project, from WPSU Penn State public broadcasting, provides schools with a look into GPS data gathering, which influences nearly everything. Explore these resources here!

young adult male behind tv camera

Media Production

WPSU creators share their tips and tricks on how to bring your story to life!

Mission: Materials Science

Materials science is the study of stuff— what it’s made of, how it can be used, and even how it can be changed to create new kinds of stuff. Your mission? To learn how materials science and engineering is at work all around you.

Science U at Home

Science-U@Home

Created by WPSU, Science-U@Home offers easy to advanced at-home science activities you can do with materials you have at home.

Big Sale Game

WPSU Games

Educational games by WPSU for all age levels.

WPSU Reads

The goal of WPSU Reads is to enrich our community through storytelling and sharing knowledge of Native American cultures through our network of community partners. Click continue to discover educational resources and find upcoming community events.

Virtual Summer Camp

WPSU Virtual Summer Camp

This summer your family can go on adventures to continents around the world and expeditions right in your backyard.

Classroom Activities

Arts: Music Arts Toolkit

Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.

A woman sitting on a couch holding up a book.

English Language Arts: Let’s Share a Story – “Hush Thai Lullaby”

Read “Hush Thai Lullaby” by Minfong Ho, a book about a lullaby native to Thailand. After reading, Paris Spitaeri guides students through an poem making activity with animals.

An girl in a red headscarf looks at the camera.

Health & PE: Power up with Bravery!

Meet the GIRL!: Hiba is 11 years old and has deemed her girl power to be bravery. She used to be afraid of snakes but with a little bit of inquiry and trust she overcame her fear and now loves all things reptile. She is a great student as she studies the language Arabic with her teacher. She also proclaims herself brave daily as she proudly wears her headscarf, also as a part of her religion. She is not afraid to be who she is!

Math: Peg’s Pizza Place Digital Game

Your child will learn operating with numbers by being introduced to counting and fractions with this Peg + Cat digital game. Help Peg feed all of her hungry customers the pizza they want. Count the right number of yummy toppings to pile onto each pizza.

Science: Why Do We Sweat?

Watch the clip “Sid the Weatherman” from Sid the Science Kid to spark conversations about measuring temperature. Then use the lesson plan to help students understand how to identify differences in temperature, like hot and cold.

A cartoon of a mail sorting conveyor belt.

Social Studies: Visiting the Post Office

Watt and Windy help Carry, the mail truck, mail a lost letter named Posty. They learn all about how the post office works.

A cartoon moon walking with several cartoon animal characters.

World Language: Let’s Go Luna

Let’s Go Luna is a PBS KIDS show that follows Luna the Moon and her adventures with Andy, Carmen, and Leo as they travel around the world. Explore cities from all over the globe with these fun videos, and check out the support materials for great classroom activities that connect cultures from around the world to classroom activities.

Arts: Music Arts Toolkit

Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.

A man with two children reading a book.

English Language Arts: Ashley Bryan

Ashley Bryan is an eclectic artist who uses painting, poetry, music, collage, and prose to tell stories. Bryan fuses these seemingly separate art forms within his books for children. “I try not to accept walls and boundaries and definitions in a strict way,” he says. “I would hope that everything I do is interrelated.” Bryan is known for retelling African folktales in a distinct, rhythmic prose that is heavily influenced by African-American poetry.

An girl in a red headscarf looks at the camera.

Health & PE: Power up with Bravery!

Meet the GIRL!: Hiba is 11 years old and has deemed her girl power to be bravery. She used to be afraid of snakes but with a little bit of inquiry and trust she overcame her fear and now loves all things reptile. She is a great student as she studies the language Arabic with her teacher. She also proclaims herself brave daily as she proudly wears her headscarf, also as a part of her religion. She is not afraid to be who she is!

Math: Lyla in the Loop

Lyla in the Loop is a PBS KIDS animated series for kids ages 4-8. The show stars Lyla, a dynamic 7-year-old Black girl, her close-knit family, fantastical blue sidekick Stu, and a host of relatable and quirky characters living in her city community, who together spotlight creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills while working collaboratively with others.

Science: Make a Mangrove

Players strive to create a balanced mangrove ecosystem in which each animal has enough food to survive over a period of 12 days, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Players see how the different species of plants and animals in a mangrove swamp depend on one another. They also experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem.

Social Studies: Mummies Made in Egypt

Explore mummification in this book about the reasons for and techniques behind this ancient Egyptian practice. LeVar Burton meets a camel outside of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The featured book, Mummies Made in Egypt, is read by actress Corinne Orr. LeVar visits the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see their extensive mummy collection.

World Languages: Give Me Some Direction!

In the online game, Lost and Found, children go on virtual scavenger hunts with Noah and Nell to collect items that Coco lost on her way to a pool party and a picnic. It’s a good thing that they have some friendly neighbors to help them with Spanish directional clues along the way! In this lesson, children will play Lost and Found and participate in hands-on activities to learn new Spanish vocabulary.

Arts: Music Arts Toolkit

Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.

A man with two children reading a book.

English Language Arts: Ashley Bryan

Ashley Bryan is an eclectic artist who uses painting, poetry, music, collage, and prose to tell stories. Bryan fuses these seemingly separate art forms within his books for children. “I try not to accept walls and boundaries and definitions in a strict way,” he says. “I would hope that everything I do is interrelated.” Bryan is known for retelling African folktales in a distinct, rhythmic prose that is heavily influenced by African-American poetry.

A woman with a yoga class of kids reach their hands up towards the sky.

Health & PE: Fireflies Musical Yoga for Kids

Fireflies Musical Yoga for Kids is a 12-part series, consisting of three-minute instructional videos presented by Kira Willey, nationally acclaimed kindie artist and musical yogini. It provides educators with a wonderful tool to help children connect their bodies and minds to music and positivity.

A woman in a blue shirt stands in front of a chalkboard with a giant stickie note on it.

Math: Rounding Up with Math

How do we know when to round when we are counting? Join 2021 Arkansas Teacher of the Year Susanna Post as she teaches us when we should round up and when we should round down. The worksheet that accompanies this video provides students the opportunity to put their skills to work as they practice rounding up and rounding down.

Science: Describing a Wave

Students observe, compare, and describe waves, using videos and images of actual waves as well as model diagrams. This interactive lesson engages students in noticing the shape of (transverse) waves and learning how to describe and measure the amplitude and wavelength of waves.

Social Studies: Conflict over Western Lands

In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills in U.S. history, students learn about the differences between the way white settlers and Native Americans thought about land and land ownership in the mid-1800s. Students explore the concept of Manifest Destiny and how it created conflict in the Great Plains. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and engagement activities.

A woman with a scarf hold her hands up next to her head.

World Languages: The Ghost with the One Black Eye /Le Fantôme Avec un Oeil au Beurre Noir

Storyteller Priscilla Howe tells a funny/scary campfire tale about a baby who wants her apple juice. One at a time, the family goes down to the cellar to get the juice, only to be confronted by a ghost. The story is available in English and French.

Arts: Music Arts Toolkit

Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.

An image of three teens standing together.

English Language Arts: Get Lit and the Power of Poetry

Arts education can truly be a transformative journey. Get Lit, an education non-profit dedicated to increasing teen literacy through the power of spoken word, is proud to collaborate with PBS SoCal | KCET in order to inspire creative expression, provide culturally relevant narratives, and grow social-emotional intelligence. Through the unique stories of five Get Lit poets, we not only offer their sheer talent of performance and storytelling, but activities, prompts, and discussion questions to apply to learning both inside and outside of the classroom in these Common Core-aligned mini-lessons.

Chatejah George

Health & PE: How to Be a BOSS

Chatejah George, the world’s youngest Black female film studio owner, shares personal experiences and highlights the importance of goal setting, managing obstacles, and never giving up on one’s dreams. Through unwavering determination and relentless pursuit, Chatejah serves as a beacon of hope and empowerment for all. Her story serves as a powerful reminder that with resilience and passion, anything is possible.

Math: Cryptology Files

Learners take on the role of cryptologists to decode clues using pre-algebraic substitution and order of operations. Can you crack the code and stop an international smuggling ring? The activity integrates geography and mathematics, and is best for grades 8 – 12.

A man in scrubs in front of a hospital room.

Math: Real-Life Math – Nurse

In this video, learn how mathematics—specifically, proportion, ratio, rate, and conversions—are used in the professional responsibilities of a registered nurse working on the surgical trauma floor. In the accompanying classroom activity, students take on the role of nursing teams, measuring vital signs, analyzing ratios, and calculating metric conversions.

Science: Waves – Amplitude, Frequency, and Wavelength

Explore the basic characteristics of waves—amplitude, frequency, and wavelength—and see how they correspond with observations of light and sound. This gallery of interactives is adapted from the University of Utah’s ASPIRE Lab. Use this resource to develop and use models of waves.

General George McClellan

Social Studies: A Thousand Mile Front

Learn how General George McClellan takes command of the Union Army in this excerpt from The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns. General McClellan takes command of the Union Army with an elaborate plan to destroy the Confederacy, but does nothing.

A man with a guitar sits in front of a fireplace.

World Languages: Folk Music of Hispanic New Mexico

John Donald Robb carefully recorded and transcribed over 3000 Hispano folk songs all over New Mexico and the Southwest between 1945 and 1972, the largest collection of its time. Like romantic and modernist composers before him, he looked to the songs of everyday folk to inspire and inform his own compositions. He also wanted to provide a living record to the musicians and scholars of New Mexico.

Arts: Music Arts Toolkit

Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.

English Language Arts: Othello

Use this collection to explore who Othello is and learn about the historical figure who possibly inspired William Shakespeare to create the character. Look at the how racism is portrayed in Shakespeare’s play.

Health & PE: The Lone Wolf

Addiction impacts people across all ages and groups, and does not discriminate. And mental health and addiction are intertwined. “The Lone Wolf” explores substance abuse, tracing the journey of several people who overcome their addiction.

A picture of original Hindu-Arabic numbers in an old book.

Math: Hindu-Arabic Numerals and Algebra

Learn where today’s widely used number system and basic math functions came from in this video from NOVA: Zero to Infinity. Use this resource to illustrate an example of the contributions of diverse cultures to the mathematics systems we use today.

Science: Particulate Nature of Matter

In this interactive activity from ChemThink, learn about solids, liquids, and gases at an atomic level. Investigate how the behavior and interaction of atoms and molecules account for the states of matter. Important terms such as elements, molecules, compounds, and mixtures are also reviewed.

Social Studies: French Conquest of Indochina

France colonized the Indochina region—including the area now known as Vietnam—beginning in the mid-19th century. Learn how the French installed local puppet governments and spread French culture, and see how many Vietnamese resisted.

A man with a guitar sits in front of a fireplace.

World Languages: Folk Music of Hispanic New Mexico

John Donald Robb carefully recorded and transcribed over 3000 Hispano folk songs all over New Mexico and the Southwest between 1945 and 1972, the largest collection of its time. Like romantic and modernist composers before him, he looked to the songs of everyday folk to inspire and inform his own compositions. He also wanted to provide a living record to the musicians and scholars of New Mexico.

These resources are curated monthly based on new PBS LearningMedia content and recent events.

Grown-ups

anti-racism

Anti-Racism Resources

A growing list of resources from PBS and trusted partners, to use as tools to support anti-racist learning and growth. Free and open for all. (pdf)

child's hand stacking colorful blocks

Centre County Services for Children Birth to Five

Centre County Local Interagency Coordinating Council (LICC) resource book, a guide to services and supports for children birth to five (0-5).

headshot Sonia

How to Talk to Kids about Race and Racism

Sonia Manzano, known as Maria on Sesame Street, will speak about how parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and those working with children can learn how to talk to kids about race.

PBS Kids Daily Newsletter

PBS Kids Weekly Newsletter

Tips and activities to keep your kids engaged and learning while at home.

PBS Parents

PBS Parents Website

Find parenting tips, hands-on activities, games, and apps for grades PreK-3 to help you raise kind, curious, and resilient children.

Sesame Street in Communities

Sesame Street in Communities

Hundreds of multi-media tools to help kids and families enrich and expand their knowledge during the early years of birth through six.